I agree with Bryant-Jaquez, a female name gives an extra possibility for positive response, interestingly email from female names are mostly sent to male email ids and the most interesting fact is that now this funda has become unhidden, so most of the female ids are fake they are actually created by male SEO professionals only.

Now regarding the actual purpose of the blog, thanks for sharing the idea there are few points which will helpful for me; to be frank enough I have not implemented them while sending backlink request email.